In his turn the Admiral was ready for all that Guacanagaricould tell him. "Gold?" His eyes were upon theIndian's necklet. Removing it, the cacique laid it in thegod's hand. All Indians now understood that we madehigh magic with gold, getting out of it virtues beyond theircomprehension. In return the Admiral gave him a smallbrazen gong and hammer. "Where did they get the gold?"Again like the Cuban chief this cacique waved his hand tothe mountains. "Cibao!" and then turning he too pointedto the south. "Much gold there," said Diego Colon. "Inland,in the mountains," quoth the Admiral, "and evidently,in very great quantity, in some land to the south! This isnot Cipango, but I think that Cipango lies to the south."He asked who ruled Hayti that we called Hispaniola. Weunderstood that there were a number of caciques, but thatfor a day's journey every way it was Guacanagari's country.

"A cacique who ruled them all?" No, there was no suchthing.

"Had ships like ours and clothed men ever before cometo them?"

No, never! But then he seemed to say that there wasundoubtedly a tradition. Gods had come, and would comeagain, and when they did so great things would follow!But no cacique nor priest nor any knew when the godshad come.

The Admiral made some question of Caribs. Again therewas gesture southward, though it seemed to us that somethingwas said of folk within this great island who wereat least like Caribs. And where was the most gold andthe greatest other wealth that they knew of? Again south,though this time we thought it rather south by west. TheAdmiral sighed, and spoke of Cuba. Yes, Guacanagariknew of Cuba. Had it end far yonder to the westward, orno end? Had any one ever come to its end? The caciquethought not, or knew not and assumed deliberation. Luisand I agreed that we had not met among these Indiansany true notion of a continent. To them Hayti was vast,Cuba was vast, the lands of the Caribs, wherever they were,were vast, and vast whatever other islands there might be.To them this was the _OEcumene_, the inhabited and inhabitableworld, Europe--Asia--Africa? Their faces stayedblank. Were these divisions of heaven?

Guacanagari would entertain and succor us. This canoe--oh, the huge marvel!--was too crowded! Yonder lay histown. All the houses that we might want were ours, allthe hammocks, all the food. And he would feast the gods.That had been preparing since yesterday, A feast withdancing. He hoped the great cacique and his people fromfar nearer heaven than was Guacanagari would live as longas might be in his town. Guarico was his town. A big,easy, amiable, likeable man, he sat in nakedness only notutter, save for that much like a big hidalgo offering sympathyand shelter to some fire-ousted or foe-ousted prince!As for the part of prince it was not hard for the Admiralto play it. He was one naturally.

He thanked the cacique to whom, I could see, he had takenliking. Seven houses would be enough. To-night some ofus would sleep upon the beach beside the heaped goods.To-morrow we would visit Guacanapri. The big, lazy,peaceable man expressed his pleasure, then with a wide anddignified gesture dismissing all that, asked to be shownmarvels.

CHAPTER XXIII

GUACANAGARI'S town was much perhaps as wasGoth town, Frank town, Saxon town, Latin town,sufficient time ago. As for clothed and unclothed,that may be to some degree a matter of cold or warmweather. We had not seen that ever it was cold in thisland.

Guacanagari feasted us with great dignity and earnestness,for he and his people held it a momentous thing ourcoming here, our being here. Utias we had and iguana,fish, cassava bread, potato, many a delicious fruit, andthat mild drink that they made. And we had calabashes,trenchers and fingers, stone knives with which certain officersof the feast decorously divided the meat, small gourds forcups, water for cleansing, napkins of broad leaves. It wasa great and comely feast. But before the feast, as in Cuba,the dance.

I should say that three hundred young men and maidensdanced. They advanced, they retreated, they cowered, theypressed forward. They made supplication, arms to heavenor forehead to ground, they received, they were grateful,they circled fast in ease of mind, they hungered again andwere filled again, they flowed together, they made a greatsquare, chanting proudly!

Fray Ignatio beside me glowered, so far as so good aman could glower. But Juan Lepe said, "It is doubt anddifficulty, approach, reconciliation, holy triumph! Theyare acting out long pilgrimages and arrivals at sacred citiesand hopes for greater cities. It is much the same as inSeville or Rome!" Whereupon he looked at me in astonishment,and Jayme de Marchena said to Juan Lepe, "Holdthy tongue!"

Dance and the feast over, it became the Admiral's turn.He was set not to seem dejected, not to give any Spaniardnor any Indian reason to say, "This Genoese--or thisgod--does not sustain misfortune!" But he sat calm,pleased with all; brotherly, fatherly, by that big, easy,contented cacique. Now he would furnish the entertainment!Among us we had one Diego Minas, a huge man and asmighty a bowman as any in Flanders or England. Himthe Admiral now put forward with his great crossbow andlong arrows. A stir ran around. "Carib! Carib!" Wemade out that those mysterious Caribs had bows and arrows,though not great ones like this. Guacanagari employedgestures and words that Luis Torres and I stroveto understand. We gathered that several times in thememory of man the Caribs had come in many canoes, warreddreadfully, killed and taken away. More than that, somewherein Hayti or Quisquaya or Hispaniola were certainpeople who knew the weapon. "Caonabo!" He repeatedthe name with respect and disliking. "Caonabo, Caonabo!"Perhaps the Caribs had made a settlement.

Diego fastened a leaf upon the bark of a tree and froma great distance transfixed it with an arrow, then in successionsent four others against the trunk, making preciselythe form of a cross. The Indians cried, "Hai! Hai!"But when the four harquebus men set up their iron rests,fixed the harquebuses, and firing cut leaves and twigs fromthe same tree, there was a louder crying. And when therewas dragged forth, charged with powder and fired, one ofthe lombards taken from the _Santa Maria_, wider yet sprangthe commotion. Pedro Gutierrez and a young cavalier fromthe _Nina_ deigned to show lance play, and Vicente Pinzonwho had served against the Moors took a great sword andwith it carved calabashes and severed green boughs. Thesword was very marvelous to them. We might have dancedfor them for Spain knows how to dance, or we might havesung for them, for our mariners sing at sea. But thesewere not the superior things we wished to show them.

Guacanagari, big and easy and gentle, said, "Live here,you who are so great and good! We will take you intothe people. We shall be brothers." We understood themthat the great white heron was their guardian spirit andwould be ours. I said, "They do not think of it as justthose stalking, stilly standing birds! It is a name for somethinghovering, brooding, caring for them."

The Viceroy spoke with energy. "Tell them of Father,Son and Holy Ghost!"

Fray Ignatio stood and spoke, gentle and plain. DiegoColon made what headway he could. Guacanagari listened,attentive. The Franciscan had a certainty that presentlyhe might begin to baptize. His face glowed. I heard himsay to the Admiral, "If it be possible, senor, leave mehere when you return to Spain! I will convert this chiefand all his people--by the time you come again there shallbe a church!"

"Let me ponder it yet a while," answered the other.

He was thoughtful when he went back to the _Nina_.Vicente Pinzon, too, was anxious for light. "This shipis crowded to sinking! If we meet wretched weather, or ifsickness break out, returning, we shall be in bad case!"Roderigo Sanchez also had his word. "Is it not very important,senor, that we should get the tidings to the Sovereigns?And we have now just this one small ship, and sofar to go, and all manner of dangers!"

"Aye, it is important!" said the Admiral. "Let methink it out, senor."

He had not slept at all, thought Juan Lepe, when nextmorning he came among us. But be looked resolved, hardyto accomplish. He had his plan, and he gave it to us inhis deep voice that always thrilled with much beside themomentary utterance. We would build a fort here on shore,hard by this village, felling wood for it and using also thetimbers of the _Santa Maria_. We would mount there hertwo guns and provide an arsenal with powder, shot, harquebusesand bows. Build a fort and call it La Navidad, becauseof Christmas day when was the wreck. It shouldhave a garrison of certainly thirty men, a man for eachyear of Our Lord's life when He began his mission. Somany placed in Hispaniola would much lighten the _Nina_,which indeed must be lightened in order with safety to recross Ocean-Sea. For yes, we would go back to Palos!Go, and come again with many and better ships, with hidalgosand missionary priests, and very many men! In themeantime so many should stay at La Navidad.

"In less than a year--much less, I promise it--I theAdmiral will be here again at La Navidad, when will comehappy greeting between brothers in the greatest service ofour own or many ages! Sea and land, God will keep usso long as we are His!"

All loved Christopherus Columbus that day. None was tobe forced to stay at La Navidad. It was easy to gainthirty; in the end there tarried thirty-eight.

The building of the fort became a pleasurable enterprise.We broke up with singing the Santa Maria, andwith her bones built the walls. Guacanagari and his peoplehelped. All was hurried. The Admiral and Viceroy, nowthat his mind was made up, would depart as soon as mightbe.

We built La Navidad where it might view the sea, upona hillside above a brown river sliding out to ocean. Beyondthe stream, in the groves, a quarter-league away, stood thehundred huts of Guarico. We built a tower and storehouseand wall of wood and we digged around all some kindof moat, and mounted three lombards. All that we couldlift from the Santa Maria and what the _Nina_ could spareus of arms, conveniences and food went into our arsenaland storehouse. We had a bubbling spring within the enclosure.When all was done the tower of La Navidad,though an infant beside towers of Europe, might sufficefor the first here of its brood. It was done in a week fromthat shipwreck.

Who was to be left at La Navidad? Leave was given tovolunteer and the mariners' list was soon made up, goodmen and not so good. From the poop there volunteeredPedro Gutierrez and Roderigo de Escobedo. The Admiraldid not block their wish, but he gave the command not toEscobedo who wished it, but to Diego de Arana whomhe named to stay, having persuaded him who would ratherhave returned with the _Nina_. But he could trust Diego deArana, and, with reason, he was not sure of those other hidalgos.De Arana stayed and fulfilled his trust, and died a braveman. Fray Ignatio would stay. "Bring me back, Senor, agoodly bell for the church of La Navidad! A bell and afont."

Juan Lepe would stay. There needed a physician. Butalso Jayme de Marchena would stay. He thought it out.Six months had not abolished the Holy Office nor convertedto gentleness Don Pedro nor the Dominican.

But the Admiral had assigned me to return with the_Nina_. I told him in the evening between the sunset andthe moonrise what was the difficulty. He was a man profoundlyreligious, and also a docile son of the Church. ButI knew him, and I knew that he would find reasons inthe Bible for not giving me up. The deep man, the wholeman, was not in the grasp of bishop or inquisitor or papalbull.

He agreed. "Aye, it is wiser! I count two months toSpain, seeing that we may not have so favorable a voyage.Three or maybe four there, for our welcome at court, andfor the gathering a fleet--easy now to gather for all willflock to it, and masters and owners cry, `Take my ship--and mine!' Two months again to recross. Look for me itmay be in July, it may be in August, it may be in September!"

The Viceroy spoke to us, gathered by our fort, underthe banner of Castile, with behind us on hill brow a crossgleaming. Again, all that we had done for the world andmight further do! Again, we returning on the _Nina_ orwe remaining at La Navidad were as crusaders, knightsof the Order of the Purpose of God! "Cherish good--oh, men of the sea and the land, cherish good! Whobetrays here betrays almost as Judas! The Purpose of Godis Strength with Wisdom and Charity which only can makejoy! Therefore be ye here at La Navidad strong, wise andcharitable!"

He said more, and he gave many an explicit direction,but that was the gist of all. Strength, wisdom and charity.

Likewise he spoke to the Indians and they listened andpromised and meant good. An affection had sprungbetween Guacanagari and Christopherus Columbus. So differentthey looked! and yet in the breast of each dwelled muchguilelessness and the ability to wonder and revere. TheViceroy saw in this big, docile ruler of Guarico howeverfar that might extend, one who would presently be baptizedand become a Christian chief, man of the Viceroy of Hispaniola,as the latter was man of the Sovereigns of Spain. Allhis people would follow Guacanagari. He saw Christendomhere in the west, and a great feudal society, acknowledgingCastile for overlord, and Alexander the Sixth as its spiritualruler.

Guacanagari may have seen friends in the gods, andespecially in this their cacique, who with others that they wouldbring, would be drawn into Guarico and made one and wholewith the people of the heron. But he never saw Guacanagaridisplanted--never saw Europe armed and warlike,hungry and thirsty.

The _Nina_ and La Navidad bade with tears each the otherfarewell. It was the second of January, fourteen hundredand ninety-three. We had mass under the palm trees, bythe cross, above the fort. Fray Ignatio blessed the going,blessed the staying. We embraced, we loved one another, weparted. The _Nina_ was so small a ship, even there justbefore us on the blue water! So soon, so soon, the windblowing from the land, she was smaller yet, smaller, smaller,a cock boat, a chip, gone!

Thirty-eight white men watched her from the hill abovethe fort, and of the thirty-eight Juan Lepe was the only onewho saw the Admiral come again.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE butio of this town had been absent for some reasonin the great wood those days of the shipwreck andthe building of La Navidad. Now he was again here,and I consorted with him and chiefly from him learnedtheir language. The Admiral had taken Diego Colon toSpain, and to Spain was gone too Luis Torres, swearingthat he would come again. To Spain was gone Sancho, butBeltran the cook stayed with us. Pedro and Fernando also.

Time passed. With the ending of January the heat increased.The butio knew all manner of simples; he wasdoctor and priest together. He had a very simple magic.He himself did not expect it to reach the Great Spirit, butit might affect the innumerable _zemes_ or under and under-under spirits. These barbarians, using other words forthem, had letter-notion of gnome, sylph, undine and salamander.All things lived and took offense or became propitious.Effort consisted in making them propitious. Ifthe effort was too great one of them killed you. Then youwent to the shadowy caves. There was a paradise, too,beautiful and easy. But the Great Spirit could not be hurtand had no wish to hurt any one else, whether _zemes_ or men.To live with the Great Spirit, that was really the Heronwish, though the little herons could not always see it.

This butio--Guarin his name--was a young man witheyes that could burn and voice that fell naturally into achant. He took me into the forest with him to look for avery rare tree. When it was found I watched him gatherplants from beneath it and scrape bits off its bark into asmall calabash. I understood that it was good for fever,and later I borrowed from him and found that he hadgrounds for what he said.

La Navidad and Guarico neighbored each other. TheIndians came freely to the fort, but Diego de Arana madea good _alcayde_ and he would not have mere crowding withinour wooden wall. Half of our thirty-eight, permitted at atime to wander, could not crowd Guarico. But in himselfeach Spaniard seemed a giant. At first a good giant, profoundlyinteresting. But I was to see pleased interest becomea painful interest.

Women. The first complaint arose about the gods or thegiants and women. Guacanagari came to La Navidad withGuarin and several old men his councilors. Diego de Aranareceived them and there was talk under the great tree withinour gate. Then all the garrison was drawn up, and in thepresence of the cacique Arana gave rebuke and command,and the two that had done the outrage had prison fora week. It was our first plain showing in this world thatheaven-people or Europeans could differ among themselvesas to right and wrong, could quarrel, upbraid and punish.But here was evidently good and bad. And what might bethe proportion? As days went by the question gathered inthis people's bosom.

It was not that their women stood aloof from our men.Many did not so in the least! But it was to be free will andactual fondness, and in measure.--But there were thoseamong us who, finding in lonely places, took by force. Thesebecame hated.

Diego de Arana was to collect the gold that was a royalmonopoly. Trading for gold for one's self was forbidden.Assuredly taking it by force--assuredly all robbery of thator anything else--was forbidden. But there came a robbery,and since it was resisted, murder followed. Thiswas a league from Guarico and from La Navidad. Theslain Indian's companion escaping, told.

This time Diego de Arana went to Guarico and Guacanagari. He took with him a rich present, and he showed howthe guilty men were punished. "You do not slay them?"asked Guacanagari. Arana shook his head. He thoughtwe were too few in this land to be ridding of life the violentand lustful. But the Indians seemed to think that he saidthat he could not. They still doubted, I think, our mortality.As yet they had seen no mighty stranger bleed or die.

Arana would have kept his garrison within the walls.But indeed it was not healthful for them there, and at thevery word of confinement faction rose. There were nowtwo parties in La Navidad, the Commandant's party andEscobedo's party.

The heat increased. It was now March. An illness fellamong us. I took Guarin into counsel and gave in water thebitter inner bark of that tree shredded and beaten fine. Thosewho shook with cold and burned with fever recovered.

Fray Ignatio was among those who sickened. He leftafter some days his hammock, but his strength did not comeback to him. Yet, staff in hand, he went almost daily toGuarico. Then, like that! Fray Ignatio died. He died--his heart stopped--on the path between Guarico andLa Navidad. He had been preaching, and then, Guarin toldme, he put his hand to his side, and said, "I will go home!"He started up the path, but at the big tree he dropped. Menand women ran to him, but the butio was dead.

We buried Fray Ignatio beneath the cross on the hilltop.The Indians watched, and now they knew that we coulddie.

The heat increased.

At first Diego de Arana sent out at intervals exploringparties. We were to learn, at least, Guacanagari's country.But the heat was great, and so many of those left at LaNavidad only idle and sensual. They would push on to avillage--we found in Guacanagari's country many hamlets,but no other town like Guarico--and there they wouldstop, with new women, new talk, and the endless plentyto eat and sleep in the shade. When, at their ownsweet will, they returned to La Navidad, the difficultieshad been too great. They could not get to the high mountainswhere might or might not be the mines. But whatthey did was to spread over the country scandalous news ofscandalous gods.

At last Arana sorted out those who could be trustedat least to strive for knowledge and self-control and sentthese. But that weakened him at La Navidad, draininghim of pure blood and leaving the infected, and by mid-April he ceased any effort at exploration. It must waituntil the Admiral returned, and he began to be hungry indeedfor that return.

Escobedo and Pedro Gutierrez were not hungry forit--not yet. These two became the head and front of ill,encouraging every insubordinate, infuriating all who sufferedpenalties, teaching insolence, self-will and license. Theydrew their own feather to them, promising evil knows whatfreedom for rapine.

All the silver weather, golden weather, diamond weathersince we had left Gomera in the Canaries--how many agessince!--now was changed. We had thought it would lastalways, but now we entered the long season of great heatand daily rain. At first we thought these rains momentary,but day after day, week after week, with stifling heat, theclouds gathered, broke, and came mighty rain that at lastceased to be refreshing, became only wearying and hateful.It did not cool us; we lived in a sultry gloom. And thegarrison of La Navidad became very quarrelsome. La Navidadshowed the Indians Europeans cursing one another,giving blows, only held back by those around from rushingat each other, stabbing and cutting. Finally they saw TomasoPassamonte kill one Jacamo. Diego de Arana hung TomasoPassamonte. But what were the Indians to think? Notwhat they thought when first we came from the wingedcanoes to their beaches.

The last of April fell the second sickness and it was farworse than the first. Eleven men died, and we buried them.When it passed we were twenty-five Spaniards in Hispaniola,and we liked not the Indians as well as we had done, andthey liked not us. Oh, the pity--pity--pity, the pity andthe blame!

Guacanagari came to visit the commandant, none withhim but the butio Guarin, and desiring to speak withArana out of the company. They talked beneath the bigtree, that being the most comfortable and commodious councilchamber. Don Diego was imperfect yet in the tongueof Guarico, and he called Juan Lepe to help him out.

It was a story of Caonabo, cacique of Maguana that raninto the great mountains of Cibao, that cacique of whomwe had already heard as being like Caribs. Caonabo hadsent quite secretly two of his brothers to Guacanagari. Hehad heard ill of the strangers and thought they were demons,not gods! He advised the cacique of Guarico to surprisethem while they slept and slay them. It was in his experiencethat all who ate and slept could be slain. If his brotherGuacanagari needed help in the adventure, Caonabo wouldgive it. He would even come in person.

Diego de Arana said, "What did you answer, O Cacique."

Guacanagari spoke at some length of our Great Caciqueand his longing that he might return. Everything had gonewell while he was here! "He will return," said Arana."And he has your word."

Guacanagari stated that he meant to keep his word. Hehad returned answer to Caonabo that there had been misfortunesbut that the mighty strangers were truly mighty,and almost wholly beneficent. At any rate, he was notprepared to slay them, did not wish to slay them.

Arana spoke vigorously, pointing out to the cacique allthe kindliness that had attended our first intercourse. Theunhappinesses of February, March and April he attributedto real demons, not to our own fiend but to small powersat large, maleficent and alarmed, heathen powers in short,jealous of the introduction of the Holy Catholic religion.Guacanagari seemed to understand about these powers. Helooked relieved. But Guarin who was with him regardedthe sea and I saw his lip curl.

The commandant wished to know if there were any dangerof Caonabo, alone, descending upon us from the mountains.But no! Maguana and Guarico were friends. Theyhad not always been so, but now they were friends. DeArana looked doubtfully, and I saw him determine to keepwatch and ward and to hold the men within or near to fort.But Guacanagari sat serene. He repeated that there werealways preliminaries before wars, and that for a long timethere had only been peace between Guarico and Maguana."Caonabo is Carib," said the young copper priest. Thecacique answered, "Carib long ago. Not now."

At sunset, the rain ceasing for a little, the earth smoking,the west a low, vaporous yellow, the swollen river sounding,Diego de Arana had summoned by the drum every man inLa Navidad. He stood beneath our banner and put hishand upon the staff and spoke earnestly to those gatheredbefore him, in their duty and out of their duty. He toldof Caonabo, and of his own sense that Guacanagari wastoo confident. He told of Guacanagari's fidelity to the Admiral,and he appealed to every Christian there to be atleast as faithful. We were few and far from Spain, andwe had perhaps more than we could conceive in trust. "Farfrom Spain, but no farther than we will from the blessedsaints and the true Christ. Let us put less distance there,being few in this land and in danger!"

He knew that he had a dozen with him, and looked straightat Escobedo.

The latter said, "Live in the open and die there, if needbe! To live in this rat hole, breathing plague, is dyingalready! Caonabo is a fable! These people! Spaniardshave but to lift voice and they flee!"

He received from his following acquiescent sound. SpokePedro Gutierrez. "Guacanagari wishes to bottle us here;that is the whole of it. Why play his game? I never sawa safer land! Only La Navidad is not safe!"

Those two had half and perhaps more than half of thegarrison. Arana cried, "Don Roderigo de Escobedo andDon Pedro Gutierrez, you serve the Queen ill!"

Whereupon Arana put him in arrest and he lay that nightin prison. The cloud was black over La Navidad.

CHAPTER XXV

IT did not lighten. Escobedo waited two days, then inthe dark night, corrupting the watch, broke gaol forPedro Gutierrez and with him and nine men quittedLa Navidad. Beltran the cook it was who heard and procureda great smoking torch, and sent out against them avoice like a bull of Bashan's. Arana sprang up, and therest of us who slept. They were eleven men, armed andalert. There were shouts, blows, a clutching and a throwingoff, a detaining and repelling. In the east showed longghost fingers, the rain held away. They were at the gatewhen we ran upon them; they burst it open and went forth,leaving one of their own number dead, and two of themwho stayed with Arana desperately hurt. We followedthem down the path, through the wood, but they had thestart. They did not go to Guarico, but they seized the boatof the _Santa Maria_ which the Admiral had left with us andwent up the river. We heard the dash of their oars, thenthe rain came down, with a weeping of every cloud.

The dead man they left behind was Fernando. I had seenPedro in the gate, going forth.

Fourteen men, two of whom were ill and two wounded,stayed at La Navidad. Arana said with passion, "Honestmen and a garrison at one! There is some gain!"

That could not be denied. Gain here, but how about ityonder?

It was May. And now the rain fell in a great copiousflood, huge-dropped and warm, and now it was restrainedfor a little, and there shone a sun confused and fierce. Earthand forest dripped and streamed and smoked. We wereAndalusians, but the heat drained us. But we held, we fourteenmen. Arana did well at La Navidad. We all didwhat we could to live like true not false Castilians, true notfalse Christians. And I name Beltran the cook as hero andmighty encourager of hearts.

We went back and forth between La Navidad and Guarico,for though the Admiral had left us a store of food we gotfrom them fruit and maize and cassava. They were allfriendly again, for the fourteen withheld themselves fromexcess. Nor did we quarrel among ourselves and showthem European weakness.

Guacanagari remained a big, easy, somewhat slothful,friendly barbarian, a child in much, but brave enough whenroused and not without common sense. He had an itch formarvels, loved to hear tales of our world that for all onecould say remained to them witchcraft and cloudland, worldabove their world! What could they, who had no greatbeasts, make of tales of horsemen? What could their hutsknow of palace and tower and cathedral, their swimmers ofstone bridges, their canoes of a thousand ships greater farthan the_ Santa Maria_ and the _Nina_? What could Guaricoknow of Seville? In some slight wise they practiced barter,but huge markets and fairs to which traveled from all quartersand afar merchants and buyers went with the tales ofhorsemen. And so with a thousand things! We were thewaving oak talking to the acorn.

But there were among this folk two or three ready forknowledge. Guarin was a learning soul. He foregatheredwith the physician Juan Lepe, and many a talk they had,like a master and pupil, in some corner of La Navidad, orunder a palm-thatched roof, or, when the rain held, by riveror sounding sea. He had mind and moral sense, thoughnot the European mind at best, nor the European moralsense at highest. But he was well begun. And he hadbeauty of form and countenance and an eager, deep eye.Juan Lepe loved him.

It was June. Guacanagari came to La Navidad, and hisbrown face was as serious as a tragedy. "Caonabo?" askedDiego de Arana.

A fortnight before this the cacique, at Arana's desire,had sent three Indians in a canoe up the river, the objectnews if possible of that ten who had departed in that direction.Now the Indians were back. They had gone a longway until the high mountains were just before them, andthere they heard news from the last folk who might becalled Guarico and the first folk who might be called Maguana.The mighty strangers had gone on up into themountains and Caonabo had put them to death.

"To death!"

It appeared that they had seized women and had beatenmen whom they thought had gold which they would notgive. They were madmen, Escobedo and Gutierrez andall with them!

Guacanagari said that Caonabo had invited them to a feast.It was spread in three houses, and they were divided so,and around each Spaniard was put a ring of Indians. Theywere eating and drinking. Caonabo entered the first house,and his coming made the signal. Escobedo and PedroGutierrez were in this house. They raised a shout, "Undone,Spaniards!" But though they were heard in theother houses--these houses being nothing more than booths--it was to no use. There followed struggle and massacre;finally Gutierrez and Escobedo and eight men lay dead.But certain Indians were also killed and among them a sonof Caonabo.

It was July. We began to long toward the Admiral'sreturn. A man among us went melancholy mad, watchingthe sea, threatening the rain when it came down andhid the sea, and the Admiral might go by! At last he threwhimself into ocean and was drowned. Another man wasbitten by a serpent, and we could not save him. We weretwelve Spaniards in La Navidad. We rested friends withGuarico, though now they held us to be nothing more thandemigods. And indeed by now we were ragged!

Then, in a night, it came.

Guacanagari again appeared. It had reached him fromup the river that Caonabo was making pact with the caciqueof Marien and that the two meant to proceed against us.Standing, he spoke at length and eloquently. If he restedour friend, it might end in his having for foes Maguanaand Marien. There had been long peace, and Guarico didnot desire war. Moreover, Caonabo said that it was idleto dread Caribs and let in the mighty strangers! He saidthat all pale men, afraid of themselves so that they coveredthemselves up, were filled with evil _zemes_ and were worsethan a thousand Caribs! But Caonabo was a mocker and ahard-of-heart! Different was Guacanagari. He told ushow different. It all ended in great hope that Caonabo wouldthink better of it.

We kept watch and ward. Yet we could not be utterlycooped within La Navidad. Errands must be done, foodbe gathered. More than that, to seem to Guarico frightened,to cry that we must keep day and night behind wall withcannon trained, notwithstanding that Caonabo might beasleep in the mountains of Cibao, would be but to mineour own fame, we who, for all that had passed, still seemedto this folk mighty, each of us a host in himself! And asnothing came out of the forest, and no more messengers ofdanger, they themselves had ceased to fear, being like childrenin this wise. And we, too, at last; for now it waslate August, and the weather was better, and surely, surely,any day we might see a white point rise from blue ocean,--a white point and another and another, like stars afterlong clouded night skies!

So we watched the sea. And also there was a man towatch the forest. But we did not conceive that the dragonwould come forth in the daytime, nor that he could comeat any time without our hearing afar the dragging of hisbody and the whistling of his breath.

It was halfway between sunrise and noon. Five of uswere in the village, seven at La Navidad. The five werethere for melons and fruit and cassava and tobacco whichwe bought with beads and fishhooks and bits of bright cloth.Three of the seven at La Navidad were out of gate, down

at the river, washing their clothes. Diego Minas, the archer,on top of wall, watched the forest. Walking below, Beltranthe cook was singing in his big voice a Moorish songthat they made much of year before last in Seville. I had abook of Messer Petrarca's poems. It had been Gutierrez's,who left it behind when he broke forth to the mountains.

Beltran's voice suddenly ceased. Diego the archer abovehim on wall had cried down, "Hush, will you, a moment!"Diego de Arana came up. "What is it?"

"I thought," said the archer, "that I heard a strangeshouting from toward village. Hark ye! There!"

We heard it, a confused sound. "Call in the men fromthe river!" Arana ordered.

Diego Minas sent his voice down the slope. The threebelow by the river also heard the commotion, distant asGuarico. They were standing up, their eyes turned thatway. Just behind them hung the forest out of which slid,dark and smooth, the narrow river.

Out of the forest came an arrow and struck to the heartGabriel Baraona. Followed it a wild prolonged cry of manyvoices, peculiar and curdling to the blood, and fifty--ahundred--a host of naked men painted black with whiteand red and yellow markings. Guarico did not use bowand arrow, but a Carib cacique knew them, and had somany, and also lances flint or bone-headed, and clubs withstones wedged in them and stone knives. Gabriel Baraonafell, whether dead or not we could not tell. Juan Morcilloand Gonzalo Fernandez sent a scream for aid up to LaNavidad. Now they were hidden as some small thing byfurious bees. Diego de Arana rushed for his sword. "Downand cut them out!"

Diego Minas fired the big lombard, but for fear of hurtingour three men sent wide the ball. We looked for terroralways from the flame, the smoke and great noise, and sothere was terror here for a moment and a bearing back inwhich Juan and Gonzalo got loose and made a little way uppath. But a barbarian was here who could not long beterrified. Caonabo sent half his horde against Guarico, buthimself had come to La Navidad. That painted army ralliedand overtook the fleeing men.

Shouting, making his swung sword dazzle in light, Diegode Arana raced down path, and Diego Minas and Beltranthe cook and Juan Lepe with him. Many a time since then,in this island, have I seen half a dozen Christians with theirarms and the superstitious terror that surrounded them putto flight twenty times their number. But this was early,and the spirit of these naked men not broken, and Caonabofaced us. It was he himself who, when three or four hadbeen wounded by Arana, suddenly rushed upon the commandant.With his stone-headed club he struck the swordaway, and he plunged his knife into Arana's breast. Hedied, a brave man who had done his best at La Navidad.

Juan Morcillo and Gonzalo Fernandez and Diego Minaswere slain. I saw a lifted club and swerved, but too late.

Blackness and neither care nor delight. Then, far off,a little beating of surf on shore, very far and nothing to dowith anything. Then a clue of pain that it seemed I mustfollow or that must follow me, and at first it was a littlethin thread, but then a cable and all my care was to thinit again. It passed into an ache and throb that filled mybeing like the rain clouds the sky. Then suddenly therewere yet heavy clouds but the sky around and behind. Iopened my eyes and sat up, but found that my arms werebound to my sides.

"We aren't dead, and that's some comfort, Doctor, asthe cock said to the other cock in the market pannier!"It was Beltran the cook who spoke and he was bound likeme. Around us lay the five dead. A score of Indianswarded us, mighty strangers in bonds, and we heard therest up at the fort where they were searching and pillaging.

Guarico, and the men there?

We found that out when at last they were done with LaNavidad and they and we were put on the march. We cameto where had been Guarico, and truly for long we had smelledthe burning of it, as we had heard the crying and shouting.It was all down, the frail houses. I made out in the loudtalking that followed the blending of Caonabo's bands whathad been done and not done. Guacanagari, wounded, wasfled after fighting a while, he and his brother and the butioand all the people. But the mighty strangers found in thevillage, were dead. They had run down to the sea, butCaonabo's men had caught them, and after hard work killedthem. Juan Lepe and Beltran, passing, saw the five bodies.

I do not think that Caonabo had less than a thousandwith him. He had come in force, and the whole as silentas a bat or moth. We were to learn over and over againthat "Indians" could do that, travel very silently, creaturesof the forest who took by surprise. Well, Guarico was destroyed,and Guacanagari and Guarin fled, and in all Hispaniolawere only two Spaniards, and we saw no sail upon thesea, no sail at all!

CHAPTER XXVI

WE turned from the sea. Thick forest came betweenus and it. We were going with Caonabo to themountains. Beltran and I thought that it had beenin question whether he should kill us at once, or hold us inlife until we had been shown as trophies in Maguana, andthat the pride and vanity of the latter course prevailed. Aftertwo days in this ruined place, during which we saw noGuarico Indian, we departed. The raid was over. All theirwar is by raid. They carried everything from the fortsave the fort itself and the two lombards. In the narrowpaths that are this world's roads, one man must walk afteranother, and their column seems endless where it winds andis lost and appears again. Beltran and I were no longerbound. Nor were we treated unkindly, starved nor hurt inany way. All that waited until we should reach Caonabo'stown.

Caonabo was a most handsome barbarian, strong andfierce and intelligent, more fierce, more intelligent than Guacanagari.All had been painted, but the heat of the lowlandand their great exertion had made the coloring run andmix most unseemly. When they left Guarico they plungedinto the river and washed the whole away, coming out clearred-brown, shining and better to look upon. Caonabowashed, but then he would renew his marking with thepaint which he carried with him in a little calabash.

A pool, still and reflecting as any polished shield, made hismirror. He painted in a terrific pattern what seemed meantfor lightning and serpent. It was armor and plume andbanner to him. I thought of our own devices, comfortingor discomforting kinships! He had black, lustrous hair, nobeard--they pluck out all body hair save the head thatch--high features, a studied look of settled and cold fierceness.Such was this Carib in Hispaniola.

Presently they put a watch and the rest all lay down andslept, Beltran beside me. The day had been clear, and nowa great moon made silver, silver, the land around. Itshone upon the Spanish sailor and upon the Carib chiefand all the naked Manguana men. I thought of Europe,and of how all this or its like had been going on hundredyears by hundred years, while perished Rome and quickenedour kingdoms, while Charlemagne governed, while the Churchrose until she towered and covered like the sky, while wewent crusades and pilgrimages, while Venice and Genoaand Lisbon rose and flourished, while letters went on andwe studied Aristotle, while question arose, and wider knowledge.At last Juan Lepe, too, went to sleep.

Next day we traveled among and over mountains. Ourpath, so narrow, climbed by rock and tree. Now it overhungdeep, tree-crammed vales, now it bore through just-parted cliffs. Beltran and Juan Lepe had need for all theirstrength of body.

The worst was that that old tremor and weakness of oneleg and side, left after some sea fight, which had made Beltranthe cook from Beltran the mariner, came back. I saw hisstep begin to halt and drag. This increased. An hour later,the path going over tree roots knotted like serpents, hestumbled and fell. He picked himself up. "Hard to keepdeck in this gale!"

When he went down there had been an exclamation fromthose Indians nearest us. "Aiya!" It was their word forrotten, no good, spoiled, disappointing, crippled or diseased,for a misformed child or an old man or woman arrivedat helplessness. Such, I had learned from Guarin, theyalmost invariably killed. It was why, from the first, wehardly saw dwarfed or humped or crippled among them.

We had to cross a torrent upon a tree that falling hadmade from side to side a rounded bridge. Again that oldhurt betrayed him. He slipped, would have fallen into thetorrent below, but that I, turning, caught him and the Indianbehind us helped. We managed across. "My ship," saidBeltran, "is going to pieces on the rocks."

The path became ladder steep. Now Beltran delayed all,for it was a lame man climbing. I helped him all I could.

The sun was near its setting. We were aloft in thesemountains. Green heads still rose over us, but we werealoft, far above the sea. And now we were going through aravine or pass where the walking was better. Here, too, awind reached us and it was cooler. Cool eve of the heightsdrew on. We came to a bubbling well of coldest water anddrank to our great refreshment. Veritable pine trees, whichwe never saw in the lowlands, towered above and sang. Thepath was easier, but hardly, hardly, could Beltran drag himselfalong it. His arm was over my shoulder.

Out of the dark pass we came upon a table almost bareof trees and covered with a fine soft grass. The mountainsof Cibao, five leagues--maybe more--away, hung in emeraldpurple and gold under the sinking sun. The highestrocky peaks rose pale gold. Below us and between thosemountains on which we stood and the golden mountainsof Cibao, spread that plain, so beautiful, so wide and long,so fertile and smiling and vast, that afterwards wascalled the Royal Plain! East and west one might not seethe end; south only the golden mountains stopped it. Andrivers shone, one great river and many lesser streams. Andwe saw afar many plumes of smoke from many villages,and we made out maize fields, for the plain was populous._Vega Real_! So lovely was it in that bright eve! The verypain of the day made it lovelier.

The high grassy space ran upon one side to sheer precipice,dropping clear two hundred feet. But there was campingground enough--and the sun almost touched the far,violet earth.

The Indians threw themselves down. When they hadsupper they would eat it, when they had it not they wouldwait for breakfast. But Caonabo with twenty young mencame to us. He said something, and my arms were caughtfrom behind and held. He faced Beltran seated against apine. "Aiya!" he said. His voice was deep and harsh, andbe made a gesture of repugnance. There was a powerfullymade Indian beside him, and I saw the last gleam of thesun strike the long, sharp, stone knife. "Kill!" said thecacique.

A dozen flung themselves upon Beltran, but there was noneed, for he sat quite still with a steady face. He had timeto cry to Juan Lepe, who cried to him, "That's what I say!Good cheer and courage and meet again!"

He had no long suffering. The knife was driven quicklyto his heart. They drew the shell to the edge of the precipiceand dropped it over.

It was early night, it was middle night, it was late night.They had set no watch, for where and what was the dangerhere on this mountain top?

One side went down in a precipice, one sloping less steeplywe had climbed from the pine trees and the well, one of alike descent we would take to-morrow down to the plain,but the fourth was mountain head hanging above us andthick wood,--dark, entangled, pathless. And it chancedor it was that Juan Lepe lay upon the side toward the peak,close to forest. The Indians had no thought to guard me.We lay down under the moon, and that bronze host slept,naked beautiful statues, in every attitude of rest.

The moon shone until there was silver day. Juan Lepewas not sleeping.

There was no wind, but he watched a branch move. Itlooked like a man's arm, then it moved farther and was afull man,--an Indian, noiseless, out clear in the moon,from the wood. I knew him. It was the priest Guarin,priest and physician, for they are the same here. Palmagainst earth, I half rose. He nodded, made a sign to risewholly and come. I did so. I stood and saw under themoon no waking face nor upspringing form. I steppedacross an Indian, another, a third. Then was clear space,the wood, Guarin. There was no sound save only the constantsound of this forest by night when a million millioninsects waken.

He took my hand and drew me into the brake and wilderness.There was no path. I followed him over I knownot what of twined root and thick ancient soil, a powderand flake that gave under foot, to a hidden, rocky shelfthat broke and came again and broke and came again. Nowwe were a hundred feet above that camp and going overmountain brow, going to the north again. Gone were Caonaboand his Indians; gone the view of the plain and themountains of Cibao. Again we met low cliff, long stonyledges sunk in the forest, invisible from below. I beganto see that they would not know how to follow. Caonabomight know well the mountains of Cibao, but this sierrathat was straight behind Guarico, Guarico knew. It is ablessed habit of their priests to go wandering in the forest,making their medicine, learning the country, discovering,using certain haunts for meditation. Sometimes they aregone from their villages for days and weeks. None indeedof these wild peoples fear reasonable solitude. Out of allwhich comes the fact that Guarin knew this mountain. Wewere not far, as flies the bird, from the burned town ofGuarico, from the sea without sail, from the ruined LaNavidad. When the dawn broke we saw ocean.

He took me straight to a cavern, such another as that inwhich Jerez and Luis Torres and I had harbored in Cuba.But this had fine sand for floor, and a row of calabashes,and wood laid for fire.

Here Juan Lepe dropped, for all his head was swimmingwith weariness.

The sun was up, the place glistered. Guarin showed howit was hidden. "I found it when I was a boy, and none butGuarin hath ever come here until you come, Juan Lepe!"He had no fear, it was evident, of Caonabo's coming. "Theywill think your idol helped you away. If they look for you,it will be in the cloud. They will say, `See that dark markmoving round edge of cloud mountain! That is he!' "I asked him, "Where are Guacanagari and the rest?"

"Guacanagari had an arrow through his thigh and adeep cut upon the head. He was bleeding and in a swoon.His brother and the Guarico men and I with them tookhim, and the women took the children, and we wentaway, save a few that were killed, upon the path that weused when in my father's time, the Caribs came in canoes.After a while we will go down to Guacanagari. But nowrest!"

He looked at me, and then from a little trickling springhe took water in a calabash no larger than an orange andfrom another vessel a white dust which he stirred into it,and made me drink. I did not know what it was, but Iwent to sleep.

But that sleep did not refresh. It was filled with heavyand dreadful dreams, and I woke with an aching head anda burning skin. Juan Lepe who had nursed the sick downthere in La Navidad knew feebly what it was. He saw ina mist the naked priest, his friend and rescuer, seated uponthe sandy floor regarding him with a wrinkled brow andcompressed lips, and then he sank into fever visions uncouthand dreadful, or mirage-pleasing with a mirage-ecstasy.

Juan Lepe did not die, but he lay ill and like to die fortwo months. It was deep in October, that day at dawnwhen I came quietly, evenly, to myself again, and lay mostweak, but with seeing eyes. At first I thought I was alonein the cavern, but then I saw Guarin where he lay asleep.

That day I strengthened, and the next day and the next.But I had lain long at the very feet of death, and fullstrength was a tortoise in returning. So good to Juan Lepewas Guarin!

Now he was with me, and now he went away to thatvillage where was Guacanagari. He had done this fromthe first coming here, nursing me, then going down throughthe forest to see that all was well with his wounded caciqueand the folk whose butio he was. They knew his ways anddid not try to keep him when he would return to the mountain,to "make medicine." So none knew of the cavern orthat there was one Spaniard left alive in all Hayti.

I strengthened. At last I could draw myself out of caveand lie, in the now so pleasant weather, upon the ledgebefore it. All the vast heat and moisture was gone by;now again was weather of last year when we found SanSalvador.

I could see ocean. No sail, and were he returning, surelyit should have been before this! He might never return.

When Guarin was away I sat or lay or moved about asmall demesne and still prospered. There were clean rock,the water, the marvelous forest. He brought cassava cake,fruit, fish from the sea. He brought me for entertainmenta talking parrot, and there lived in a seam of the rock abeautiful lizard with whom I made friends. The air wasbalm, balm! A steady soft wind made cataract sound inthe forest. Sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight, were greatglories.

It was November; it was mid-November and after.

Now I was strong and wandered in the forest, thoughnever far from that cliff and cavern. It was settled betweenus that in five days I should go down with Guarinto Guacanagari. He proposed that I should be taken formallyinto the tribe. They had a ceremony of adoption,and after that Juan Lepe would be Guarico. He wouldlive with and teach the Guaricos, becoming butio--he andGuarin butios together. I pondered it. If the Admiralcame not again it was the one thing to do.

I remember the very odor and exquisite touch of themorning. Guarin was away. I had to myself cave andledge and little waterfall and great trees that now I wastelling one from another. I had parrot and lizard and spokenow to the one and now to the other. I remember thebutterflies and the humming birds.

I looked out to sea and saw a sail!

It was afar, a white point. I leaned against the rock forI was suddenly weak who the moment before had felt strong.The white point swelled. It would be a goodly large ship.Over blue rim slipped another flake. A little off I saw athird, then a fourth. Juan Lepe rubbed his eyes. Beforethere came no more he had counted seventeen sail. Theygrew; they were so beauteous. Toward the harbor saileda fleet. Now I made out the flagship.

O Life, thou wondrous goddess of happenings!

An hour I sat on cliff edge and watched. They weremaking in, the lovely white swans. When they were fairlynear, when in little time the foremost would bring to, downsail and drop anchor, Juan Lepe, gathering his belongingstogether, bidding the lizard farewell and taking the parrotwith him on shoulder, left cavern and cliff and took Guarin'spath down through the forest.

The sun in the sky shone, and in the bay hung that wonderof return, the many ships for the _Nina_. Juan Lepe andGuarin went on down through wood to a narrow silverbeach, out upon which had cast itself an Indian village.

Guacanagari was not here. He waited within his housefor the Admiral. But his brother, and others of Guarico,saw me and there rose a clamor and excitement that for themoment took them from the ships. Guarin explained andJuan Lepe explained, but still this miraculous day dyed alsofor them my presence here. I had been slain, and had cometo life to greet the Great Cacique! It grew to a legend. Imet it so, long afterwards in Hispaniola.

CHAPTER XXVII

ONE by one were incoming, were folding wings, wereanchoring, Spanish ships. Three were larger eachthan the _Santa Maria_ and the _Pinta_ together; theothers caravels of varying size. Seventeen in all, a fleet,crowded with men, having cannon and banners and music.Europe was coming with strength into Asia! The Indianson the beach were moved as by an unresting wind. Theyhad terror, they had delight, and some a mere stupidity ofstaring. The greatest ship, the first to anchor, carried thebanner of Castile and Leon, and the Admiral's banner.Now a boat put off from her, boats also from the two shipsnext in grandeur.

As they came over the blue wave Juan Lepe stepped downsand to water edge. Not here, but somewhat to the west,before La Navidad would one look for this anchoring. Hethought rightly that the Admiral came here from La Navidad,where he found only ruin, but also some straying Indianwho could give news. So it was, for presently in theforemost boat I made out two Guarico men. They had toldof Caonabo and of Guacanagari's fortunes, and of everySpaniard dead of that illness or slain by Caonabo. Theywould put Juan Lepe among these last, but here was JuanLepe, one only left of that thirty-eight.

The boat approached. I saw the bared head, higher thanany other, the white hair, the blue-gray eyes, the strongnose and lips, the whole majestic air of the man, as of agreat one chosen. Master Christopherus--Don Cristoval--_el Almirante_! One of the rowers, and that was Sanchowith whom I had walked on the Fishertown road, first sawme and gave a startled cry. All in the boat turned head.I heard the Admiral's voice, "Aye, it is! It is!"

Boat touched sand, there was landing. All sprang out.The Admiral took me in his arms. "You alone--oneonly?"

I answered, "One only. The most died in their duty."

He released me. "senors, this is senor Juan Lepe, thatgood physician whom we left. Now tell--tell all--beforewe go among this folk!"

By water edge I told, thirty men of Spain around me.A woeful story, I made it short. These men listened, andwhen it was done fell a silence. Christopherus Columbusbroke it. "The wave sucks under and throws out again,but we sail the sea, have sailed it and will sail it!--Nowwere these Indians false or fair?"

I could tell how fair they had been--could praise Guaricoand Guacanagari and Guarin. He listened with great satisfaction."I would lay my head for that Indian!"

Talk with him could not be prolonged, for we were ina scene of the greatest business and commotion. When Isought for Guarin he was gone. Nor was Guacanagari yetat hand. I looked at the swarming ships and ship boats,and the coming and coming upon the beach of more andmore clothed men, and at the tall green palms and the featheredmountains. This host, it seemed to me, was not soartlessly amazed as had been we of the _Santa Maria_, the_Pinta_ and the _Nina_, when first we came to lands so strangeto Europe. Presently I made out that they had seen othersof these islands and shores. Coming from Spain they hadsailed more southerly than we had done before them. Theyhad made a great dip and had come north-by-west to Hispaniola.I heard names of islands given by the Admiral, Dominica,Marigalante, Guadaloupe, Santa Maria la Antigua,San Juan. They had anchored by these, set footupon them, even fought with people who were Caribs, Caribalsor Cannibals. They had a dozen Caribs, men andwomen, prisoners upon the _Marigalante_ that was the Admiral'sship.

This group about Juan Lepe, survivor of La Navidad,talked like seasoned finders and takers. For the most partthey were young men and hidalgos, fighters against theMoors, released by the final conquest of those paynims, outnow for further wild adventure and for gold with which toreturn, wealthy and still young, to Spanish country, Spanishcities, Spanish women! They had the virtue and the viceof their sort, courage, miraculous generosities and as miraculousweaknesses. Gold, valor, comradeship--and eyes restingappraisingly upon young Guarico women there upon thesilver beach with Guarico men.

I heard one cry "Master Juan Lepe!" and turning foundLuis Torres. We embraced, we were so glad each to seethe other. My hidalgos were gone, but before I couldquestion Luis or he me, there bore down upon us, comingtogether like birds, half a dozen friars. "We bring twelve--number of the Apostles!" said Luis. "Monks andpriests. Father Bernardo Buil is their head. The HolyFather hath appointed him Vicar here. You won't find hima Fray Ignatio!"

A bull-necked, dark-browed, choleric looking man addressedme. His Benedictine dress became him ill. Heshould have been a Captain of Free Lances in whateverbrisk war was waging. He said, "The survivor, JuanLepe?--We stopped at your La Navidad and found ruinand emptiness. There must have been ill management--gross!"

"They are all dead," I answered. "None of us managethe towers so very well!"

He regarded me more attentively. "The physician, JuanLepe. Where did you study?"

"In Poitiers and in Paris, Father."

"You have," he said, "the height and sinew and somethingof the eye and voice of a notable disappeared heretic,Jayme de Marchena, who slipped the Dominicans. I sawhim once from a doorway. But that the Prior of La Rabidahimself told me that he had accurate knowledge thatthe man was gone with the Jews to Fez, I could almost think--But of course it is not possible, and now I see the differences."

I answered him with some indifferent word, and we cameto the Haytiens, and how many had Fray Ignatio madeChristian? "I knew him," said the Benedictine. "A goodman, but weak, weak!"

Juan Lepe asked of the Indians the Admiral had takento Spain. "But six reached us alive. We instructed themand baptized them. A great event--the Grand Cardinaland the King and the Queen attending! Three died duringthe summer, but blessedly, being the first of all their peoplein all time to enter heaven. A great salvation!"

He looked at the forest and mountains, the sands, theGuaricos, as at a city he was besieging.

"Ha!" said Father Buil, and with his missionaries movedup the beach.

Luis and I began to talk. "No need to tell me that Spaingave you welcome!"'

"The royalest ever! First we came to Lisbon, drivenin by storm, and had it there from King John, and then toPalos which, so to speak, went mad! Then through Spainto Barcelona, where was the court, and all the bells in everytown ringing and every door and window crowded, and hereis the Faery Prince on a white charger, his Indians behindhim and gold and parrots and his sailors! Processions andprocessions--alcalde and alcayde and don and friar andpriest, and let us stop at the church and kneel before highaltar, and vow again in seven years to free the Sepulchre!He hath walked and ridden, waked and slept, in a great, highvision! Most men have visions but he can sustain vision."

"Aye, he can!"

"So at last into Barcelona, where grandees meet us, andso on to the court, and music as though the world had turnedmusic! And the King and Queen and great welcome, and,`Sit beside us, Don Cristoval Colon!' and `Tell and tellagain', and `Praise we Most High God!' "

"It is something for which to praise! Ends of the earthbeginning to meet."

"Aye! So we write that very night to the Pope to beconfirmed that the glory and profit under God are to Castileand Aragon. But the Queen thought most of the heathenbrought to Christ. And the Admiral thinks of his sonsand his brothers and his old father, and of the Holy Sepulchreand of the Prophecies, and he has the joy of therunner who touches the goal!--I would you could haveseen the royalty with which he was treated--not one daynor week but a whole summer long--the flocking, the bowingand capping, the `Do me the honor--', the `I have asmall petition.' Nothing conquers like conquering!"

"He had long patience."

"Aye. Well, he is at height now. But he has got withhim the old disastrous seeds.--Fifteen hundred men, andamong them quite a plenty like Gutierrez and Escobedo!But there are good men, too, and a great lot of romanticaldaredevils. No pressing this time! We might have broughtfive thousand could the ships have held them. `Come to theIndies and make your fortune!'--`Aye, that is my desire!' "

I said, "I am looking now at a romantical daredevilwhom I have seen before, though I am sure that he nevernoticed me."

"Don Alonso de Ojeda? He is feather in cap, and sometimescap, and even at stress head within the cap! Withoutmoving you've beckoned him."

There approached a young man of whom I knew something,having had him pointed out by Enrique de Cerda inSanta Fe. I had before that heard his name and somewhatof his exploits. In our day, over all Spain, one might find orhear of cavaliers of this brand. War with the Moor hadlasted somewhat longer than the old famed war with Troy.It had modeled youth; young men were old soldiers. Whenthere came up a sprite like this one he drank war like wine.A slight young man, taut as a rope in a gale, with darkeyes and red lips and a swift, decisive step, up he came.

"Oh, you are the man who lived out of all your fort?How did you manage it?"

"I had a friend among these friendly Indians who rescuedme."

"Yes! It is excellent warfare to have friends.--Youhave seen no knight nor men-at-arms, nor heard of such?"

"Not under those names."

"How far do you think we may be from true housesand cities, castles, fortresses?"

"I haven't the least idea. By the looks of it, pretty far."

"It seems to me that you speak truth," he answered."Well, it isn't what we looked for, but it's something! Roomyet to dare!" Off he went, half Mercury, half Mars,and a sprig of youth to draw the eyes.

"No, not that way, though true it is that he wreckedhimself! I forget that you know nothing. We met the_Pinta_ last January, not a day from here, with Monte Cristithere yet in sight. When he came aboard and sat in thegreat cabin I do not know what he said, except that it wasof separation by that storm, and the feeling that two partiesdiscovering would thereby discover the more, and the betterserve their Majesties. The Admiral made no quarrel withhim. He had some gold and some news of coasts that wehad not seen. And he did not seem to think it necessaryto seem penitent or anything but just naturally MartinPinzon. So on we sailed together, he on the _Pinta_ and theAdmiral on the _Nina_. But that was a rough voyage homeover Ocean-Sea! Had we had such weather coming, mighthave been mutiny and throat-cutting and putting back,Cathay and India being of no aid to dead men! Six timesat least we thought we were drowned, and made vows,kneeling all together and the Admiral praying for us, FrayIgnatio not being there. Then came clear, but beyondCanaries a three days', three nights' weather that truly droveus apart, the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_. We lost each other in thedarkness and never found again. We were beaten into theTagus, the _Pinta_ on to Bayonne. Then, mid-March, we cameto Palos, landed and the wonder began. And in three dayswho should come limping in but the _Pinta_? But she missedthe triumph, and Martin Pinzon was sick, and there wassome coldness shown. He went ashore to his own house,and his illness growing worse he died there. Well, he hadqualities."

"Aye," I answered, with a vision of the big, bluff, golden-haired man.

"Vicente Pinzon is here; his ship the _Cordera_ yonder.What's the stir now? The Admiral will go to see Guacanagari?"

That, it seemed, was what it was, and presently cameword that Juan Lepe should go with him. A body of cavalierssumptuously clad, some even wearing shining corselet,greaves and helm, was forming about him who was himselfin a magnificent dress. Besides these were fifty of theplainer sort, and there lacked not crossbow, lance and arquebus.And there were banners and music. We were goinglike an army to be brotherly with Guacanagari. FatherBuil was going also, and his twelve gowned men. "Who,"I asked Luis, "is the man beside the Admiral? He seemshis kin."

"He is. It is his brother, Don Diego. He is a goodman, able, too, though not able like the Admiral. Theysay the other brother, Bartholomew, who is in England orin France, is almost as able. How dizzily turns the wheelfor some of us! Yesterday plain Diego and Bartholomew,a would-be churchman and a shipmaster and chart-maker!Now Don Diego--Don Bartholomew! And the two sonswatching us off from Cadiz! Pages both of them to thePrince, and pictures to look at! `Father!' and `Noblefather! and `Forget not your health, who are our Dependance!' "

Waiting for all to start, I yet regarded that huge dazzleupon the beach, so many landed, so many coming fromthe ships, the ships themselves so great a drift of sea birds!As for those dark folk--what should they think of allthese breakers-in from heaven? It seemed to me to-daythat despite their friendliness shown us here from the first,despite the miracle and the fed eye and ear and the excitement,they knew afar a pale Consternation.

At last, to drum and trumpet, we passed from shiningbeach into green forest. I found myself for a moment besideDiego Colon--not the Admiral's brother, but the youngIndian so named. Now he was Christian and clothed, andtruly the Haitiens stared at him hardly less than at theAdmiral. I greeted him and he me. He tried to speak inCastilian but it was very hard for him, and in a moment weslipped into Indian.

I asked him, "How did you like Spain?"

He looked at me with a remote and childlike eye and beganto speak of houses and roads and horses and oxen.

A message came from the Admiral at head of column. Iwent to him. Men looked at me as I passed them. I wasragged now, grizzle-bearded and wan, and they seemed tosay, "Is it so this strange land does them? But those firstones were few and we are many, and it does not lie in ourfortune! Gold lies in ours, and return in splendor andhappiness." But some had more thoughtful eyes and truersense of wonder.

We found Guacanagari in a new, large, very clean house,and found him lying in a great hammock with his leg boundwith cotton web, around him wives and chief men. He satup to greet the Admiral and with a noble and affecting airpoured forth speech and laid his hand upon his hidden hurt.

Now I knew, because Guarin had told me so, that thatwound was healed. It had given trouble--the Caribs poisonedtheir darts--but now it was well. But they aresimpler minded than we, this folk, and I read Guacanagarithat he must impress the returning gods with his fidelity.He had proved it, and while Juan Lepe was by he did notneed this mummery, but he had thought that he might need.So, a big man evidently healthful, he sighed and winced andhalf closed his eyes as though half dying still in that oldcontest when he had stood by the people from the sky. Iinterpreted his speech, the Admiral already understanding,but not the surrounding cavaliers. It was a high speech orhigh assurance that he had done his highest best.

"Do I not believe that, Guacanagari?" said the Admiral,and thinking of Diego de Arana and Fray Ignatio and othersand of the good hope of La Navidad, tears came into hiseyes.

He sat upon the most honorable block of wood which wasbrought him and talked to Guacanagari. Then at his gestureone brought his presents, a mirror, a rich belt, a knife, a pairof castanets. Guacanagari, it seemed, since the sighting ofthe ships, had made collection on his part. He gave enoughgold to make lustful many an eye looking upon that scene.

The women brought food and set before the Spaniardsin the house. I found Guarin and presently we came tobe standing without the entrance--they had no doors;sometimes they had curtains of cotton--looking upon thatstrange gathering in the little middle square of the town.So many Spaniards in the palm shadows, and the womenfeeding them, and Alonso de Ojeda's hand upon the arm ofa slender brown girl with a wreath of flowers around herhead. Father Buil was within with the Admiral, truculentlyand suspiciously regarding the idolater who now had leftthe hammock and seemed as well of a wound as any there!But here without were eight or ten friars, gathered togetherunder a palm tree, making refection and talkingamong themselves. One devout brother, sitting apart andfasting, told his beads.

Said Guarin, "I have been watching him. He is talkingto his _zeme_.--They are all butios?"

"Yes. Most of them are good men."

"What is going to happen here to all my people? Somethingis over against me and my people, I feel it! Eventhe cacique has fear."

"It is the dark Ignorance and the light Ignorance, theclothed Ignorance and the naked Ignorance. I feel it too,what you feel. But I feel, O Guarin, that the inner andtrue Man will not and cannot take hurt!"

He said, "Do they come for good?"

I answered, "There is much good in their coming. Seenfrom the mountain brow, enormous good, I think. In thelong run I am fain to think that all have their market here,you no less than I, Guacanagari no less than the Admiral."

"I do not know that," he said. "It seems to me thesunny day is dark."

I said, "In the main all things work together, and in theend is honey."

Out they came from palm-roofed house, the Admiral ofthe Ocean-Sea and Viceroy of what Indies he could findfor Spain and Spain could take, and the Indian king orgrandee or princeling. Perceiving that what he did wasappreciated for what it was, Guacanagari had recovered hislameness. The cotton was no longer about his thigh; hemoved straight and lightly,--a big, easy Indian.

It was now well on in the afternoon, but he would go withthe Mighty Stranger, the Great Cacique his friend, to seethe ships and all the wonders. His was a childlike cravingfor pure novelty and marvel.

So we went, all of us, back through vast woodland tocerulean water. Water was deep, the _Marigalante_ rode closein, and about and beyond her the _Santa Clara_, the _Cordera_,the _San Juan_, the _Juana_, another _Nina_, the _Beatrix_ andmany another fair name. They were beautiful, the shipson the gay water and about them the boats and the redmen's canoes.

We went to the _Marigalante_, I with the Admiral. Dancingacross in the boat there spoke to me Don Diego Colon,born Giacomo Colombo, and I found him a sober, able man,with a churchly inclination. Here rose the Marigalante,and now we were upon it, and it was a greater ship than the_Santa Maria_, a goodly ship, with goodly gear aboard andgoodly Spaniards. Jayme de Marchena felt the tug ofblood, of home-coming into his country.

CHAPTER XXVIII

FINDING young Sancho upon the _Marigalante_, I kepthim beside me for information's sake. He, too, hadhis stories. And he asked me how Pedro and Fernandodied.

In this ship were two sets of captives, animals broughtfrom Spain and Indians from those fiercer islands to thesouth. The _Monsalvat_ that was a freight ship had manyanimals, said Sancho, cattle and swine and sheep and goatsand cocks and hens, and thirty horses. But upon the _Marigalante_,well-penned, the Admiral had a stallion and twomares, a young bull and a couple of heifers, and two dogs--bloodhounds. The Caribs were yonder, five men in all.

He took me to see them. They were tall, strong, sullenand desperate in aspect, hardier, fiercer than Indians ofthese northward lands. But they were Indians, and theirguttural speech could be made out, at least in substance.They asked with a high, contemptuous look when we meantto slay and eat them.

"They eat men's flesh, every Caribal of them! We sawhorrid things in Guadaloupe!"

Away from these men sat or stood seven women. "Theywere captives," said Sancho. "Caribs had ravished themfrom other islands and they fled in Guadaloupe to us."

These women, too, seemed more strongly fibred, courageous,high of head than the Hayti women. There was amongthem one to whom the others gave deference, a chieftainess,strong and warlike in mien, not smoothly young nor aftertheir notions beautiful, but with an air of sagacity and pride.A ship boy stood with us. "That is Catalina," he said."Ho, Catalina!"

The woman looked at him with disdain and what shesaid was, "Young fool with fool-gods!"

"They came to us for refuge," said Sancho. "We thinkthey are Amazons. There was an island where they foughtus like men--great bow-women! Don Alonso de Ojedafirst called this one Catalina, so now we all call her Catalina.At first they liked us, but now that they are safe away fromCaribs--all but these five and they can't hurt them--they sit and pine! I call it ungrateful, Catalina!"

We moved away. There came from the great cabin wherethey had wine and fine sweet cakes the Admiral and Guacanagari,with them Don Diego and three or four cavaliers.Guarin was not with the cacique, upon the _Marigalante_.He would not come. I had a vision of him, in the forest,seated motionless, communing with the deepest self towhich he could reach, seeking light with the other light-seekers.

Christopherus Columbus beckoned me and I went theround of the ship with him and others and his guest, thisfar-away son of Great India. So, presently, he was taken toview the horses and the cattle. Whoever hath seen lionsbrought to a court for show hath seen some shrinking fromtoo-close and heard timorous asking if the bars be reallystrong. And the old, wild beasts at Rome for the games.If one came by chance upon them in a narrow quarterthere might be terror. And the bull that we goad to madnessfor a game in Spain--were barriers down would comea-scrambling! This cacique had never seen an animal largerthan a fox or a dog, Yet he stood with steadiness, thoughhis glance shot here and there. The stallion was restlessand fiery-eyed; the bull sent forth a bellow. "Why do theycome? What will they do here? Will you put them in theforest? The people will be afraid to wander!"

He looked away to sky and sea and shore. "It growstoward night," he said. "I will go back to my town."

The Admiral said, "I would first show you the Caribs,"and took him there where they were bound. The Haytienregarded them, but the Caribs were as contemptuously silentas might have been Alonso de Ojeda in like circumstances.Only as Guacanagari turned away, one spoke in a fierce,monotonous voice. "You also, Haytien, one moon!"

"You lie! Only Caribs!" Guacanagari said back.

The cacique stood before the woman whom they calledCatalina. She broke into speech. It was cacique tocacique. She was from Boriquen--she would return in acanoe if she were free! Better drown than live with theutterly un-understandable--only that they ate and drankand laid hold of women whether these would or would not,and were understandable that far! Gods! At first shethought them gods; now she doubted. They were magicians.If she were free--if she were free--if she were free!Home--Boriquen! If not that, at least her own color andthe understandable!"

Guacanagari stood and listened. She spoke so fast--theAdmiral never became quite perfect in Indian tongues, andfew upon the _Marigalante_ were so at this time. Juan Lepeunderstood. But just as he was thinking that in duty boundhe must say to the Admiral, "She is undermining reputation.Best move away!" Guacanagari made a violent gestureas though he would break a spell. "Where could theycome from with all that they have except from heaven?Who can plan against gods? It is sin to think of it! _ElAlmirante_ will make you happy, Boriquen woman!"

We left the women. But Guacanagari himself was nothappy, as he had been that Christmas-tide when first thegods came, when the _Santa Maria_ was wrecked and he gaveus hospitality.

The Admiral did not see that he was unhappy. The Admiralsaw always a vast main good, and he thought it pearland gold in every fiber. As yet, he saw no rotted string,no snarl to be untangled. It was his weakness, and maybe,too, his strength.

The sunset hung over this roadstead and the shore. Themountains glowed in it, the nearer wood fell dark, the beachshowed milky white, a knot of palms upon a horn of landcaught full gold and shone as though they were in heaven.Over upon the _Cordera_ they were singing. The long cacique-canoe shot out from the shadow of the _Marigalante_.

Sun dipped, night cupped hands over the world. The longday of excitement was over. Mariners slept, adventurersgentle and simple, the twelve friars and Father Buil. Seventeenships, nigh fifteen hundred men of Europe, swingingwith the tide before the land we were to make Spanish.

The watch raised a cry. Springing from his bed Juan Lepecame on deck to find there confusion, and under the moonin the clear water, swimming forms, swimming from usin a kind of desperate haste and strength. There was shoutingto man the boat. One jostling against me cried thatthey were the captive Indians. They had broken bonds,lifted hatch, knocked down the watch, leaped over side.Another shouted. No, the Caribs were safe. These werethe women--

The women--seven forms might be made out--werenot far from land. I felt tingling across to me their hopeand fear. Out of ship shadow shot after them our boat.Strongly rowed, it seemed to gain, but they made speedstrongly, strongly. The boat got into trouble with theshallows. The swimmers now stood and ran, now wereracers; in a moment they would touch the dry, the shiningbeach. Out of boat sprang men running after them, runningacross low white lines of foam. The women, thatstrong woman cacique ahead, left water, raced across sandtoward forest. Two men were gaining, they caught at theleast swift woman. The dark, naked form broke fromthem, leaped like a hurt deer and running at speed passedwith all into the ebony band that was forest.

Alonso de Ojeda burst into a great laugh. "Well done,Catalina!"

The Admiral's place could ever be told by his head overall. Moreover his warm, lifted, powerfully pulsing naturewas capable of making around him a sphere that tingledand drew. One not so much saw him as felt him, here,there. Now I stood beside him where he leaned over rail."Gone," he said. "They are gone!" He drew a deepbreath. I can swear that he, too, felt an inner joy that theyhad escaped clutching.

But in the morning he sent ashore a large party underhis brother, Don Diego. We received another surprise. NoIndians on the beach, none in the forest, and when theycame to the village, only houses, a few parrots and thegardens, dewy fresh under the sun's first streaming. NoIndians there, nor man nor woman nor child, not Guacanagari,not Guarin, not Catalina and her crew--none! Theywere gone, and we knew not where, Quisquaya being a hugecountry, and the paths yet hidden from us or of doubtfultreading. But the heaped mountains rose before us, andJuan Lepe at least could feel assured that they were gonethere. They vanished and for long we heard nothing ofthem, not of Guacanagari, nor of Guarin who had savedJuan Lepe, not of Catalina, nor any.

This neighborhood, La Navidad and the shipwreck of the_Santa Maria_, burned Guarico and now this empty village,perpetual reminder that in some part our Indian subjectsliked us not so well as formerly and could not be madeChristian with a breath, grew no longer to our choice.Something of melancholy overhung for the Admiral this partof Hispaniola. He was seeking a site for a city, but nowhe liked it not here. The seventeen ships put on sail and,a stately flight of birds greater than herons, pursued theirway, easterly now, along the coast of Hispaniola.

Between thirty and forty leagues from the ruin of LaNavidad opened to us a fair, large harbor where two riversentered the sea. There was a great forest and bright protrudingrock, and across the south the mountains. Whenwe landed and explored we found a small Indian village thathad only vaguely heard that gods had descended. Fortyleagues across these forests is a long way. They had hearda rumor that the cacique of Guarico liked the mightystrangers and Caonabo liked them not, but as yet knewlittle more. The harbor, the land, the two rivers pleased us."Here we will build," quoth the Viceroy, "a city namedIsabella."

CHAPTER XXIX

CHRISTMASTIDE, a year from the sinking of the_Santa Maria_, came to nigh two thousand Christian mendwelling in some manner of houses by a river in aland that, so short time before, had never heard the word"Christmas." Now, in Spain and elsewhere, men andwomen, hearing Christmas bells, might wonder, "Whatare they doing--are they also going to mass--thoseadventurers across the Sea of Darkness? Have they convertedthe Indies? Are they moving happily in the golden,spicy lands? Great marvel! Christ now is born there ashere!"

Juan Lepe chanced to be walking in the cool of the eveningwith Don Francisco de Las Casas, a sensible, strong man,not unread in the philosophers. He spoke to me of his son,a young man whom he loved, who would sooner or latercome out to him to Hispaniola, if he, the elder, stayed here.So soon as this we had begun to speak thus, "Come out toHispaniola." "Come out to Isabella in Hispaniola." Whata strong wind is life, leaping from continent to continent andcrying, "Home wherever I can breathe and move!" Thisyoung man was Bartolome, then at Salamanca, at the University.Bartolome de Las Casas, whom Juan Lepe shouldlive to know and work with. But this evening I heard thefather talk, as any father of any promising son.

With us, too, was Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who had astory out of Mandeville of a well by the city of Polombe inPrester John's country. If you drank of the well, thoughyou were dying you would never more have sickness, andthough you were white-bearded you would come youngagain!

The palms waved above Isabella that was building behindthe camp by the river. It was beginning, it was plannedout; the stone church, the stone house of the Viceroy werealready breast-high. A Spanish city building, and the bellsof Europe ringing.

Out sprang the noise of a brawl.--There was that in theAdmiral that would have when it could outward no lessthan inward magnificence. He could go like a Spartan orDiogenes the Cynic, but when the chance came--magnificence!With him from Spain traveled a Viceroy's household.He had no less than thirty personal servants andretainers. Hidalgos here at Isabella had also servants,but no one more than two or three. It was among thesefolk that first arose our amazing jealousies and envies. Nowand again the masters must take part. Not the Viceroywho in such matters went very stately, but certain of ourgentlemen. Loud and angry voices rose under the palms,under a sky of pale gold.

Sent for, I found the Admiral lying on his bed, not yetin his stone house but in a rich and large pavilion broughtout especially for the Viceroy and now pitched upon theriver bank, under palms. I came to him past numbers outof that thirty. Idle here; they certainly were idle here!With him I found a secretary, but when he could he preferredalways to write his own letters, in his small, clear,strong hand, and now he was doing this, propped in bed,in his brow a knot of pain. He wrote many letters. Longafterwards I heard that it had become a saying in Spain,"Write of your matters as often as Christopherus Columbus!"

I sat waiting for him to finish and he saw my eyes uponyet unfolded pages strewing the table taken from the _Marigalante_and set here beside him. "Read if you like," he said."The ships set sail day after to-morrow."

I took and read in part his letter to a learned man withwhom, once or twice, Jayme de Marchena had talked. Itwas a long letter in which the Admiral, thinker to thinker,set forth his second voyage and now his city building, andat last certain things for the mind not only of Spain but ofFrance and Italy and England and Germany. "All landsand all men whom so far we have come to," wrote the Admiral,"are heathen and idolaters. In the providence ofGod all such are given unto Christendom. Christendommust take possession through the acts of Christian princes,under the sanction of Holy Church, allowed by the Pope whois Christ our King's Viceroy. Seeming hardship bringethgreat gain! Millions of souls converted, are baptized. Everyinfant feeleth the saving water. Souls that were lost noware found. Christ beameth on them! To that, what is itthat the earthly King of a country be changed?"

His quill traveled on over paper. Another sheet cameinto my hand. I read it, then sat pondering. He sighedwith pain, pushed all aside and presently bade the secretaryforth. When the man was gone he told me of an agonybehind his eyes that now stabbed and now laid him in adrowsiness. I did what I could for him then waited untilthe access was over. It passed, and he took again his pen.

I said, "You advise that there be made a market forCarib slaves, balancing thus the negroes the Portuguese arebringing in, and providing a fund for our needs--"

He said, "They are eaters of men's flesh, intractable andabominable, not like the gentler people we find hereabouts!It is certain that before long, fleet after fleet coming, ourtwo thousand here growing into many thousands, morecities than Isabella arising, commerce and life as in Europebeginning--Well, these fiercer, Caribal islands will be overrun,taken for Spain! What better to do with their people?I do not wish to slay them and eat them!"

"Slaves--"

"How many Moors in Castile and Arragon, slaves andnone the worse for it, being baptized, being kindly enoughentreated! And now the Portuguese bring Negroes, andare they the worse off, being taken from a deep damnation?Long ago, I have read, the English were taken to Rome andsold in the market place, and the blessed Gregory, seeingthem, cried, `Christ shall be preached in their nation!'Whereupon he sent Augustine and all England was saved.--Look you, this world is rude and worketh rudely! But itclimbs in the teeth of its imperfections!"

"I do not doubt that," I said. "When it wills to climb."

"I do but lay it before the Sovereigns," he answered."I do not know what they will think of it there. But trulyI know not what else to do with these Asiatics when theywithstand us! And even in slavery they must gain fromChristians! What matters masters when they find the TrueMaster?"

Juan Lepe brooded still while the pen scratched andscratched across the page. The noise ceased. I looked upto see if he were in pain again, and met gray-blue eyes aslonging as a child's. "What I would," he said, "is thatthe Lord would give to me forever to sail a great ship, andto find, forever to find! The sea is wider than the land,and it sends its waves upon all lands. Not Viceroy, butthe Navigator, the Finder--"

Juan Lepe also thought that there streamed his Genius.Here he was able, but there played the Fire. But he, likemany another, had bound himself. Don Cristoval Colon--Viceroy--and eighths and tenths!

CHAPTER XXX

TWELVE of our ships went home to Spain.

February wheeled by. March was here, and everyday the sun sent us more heat.

The Indians around us still were friendly--women andall. From the first there was straying in the woods withIndian women. Doubtless now, in the San Salvador islands,in Cuba and in Hispaniola, among those Guaricos fled fromus to the mountains, would be infants born of Spanishfathers. Juan Lepe contemplated that filling in the sea betweenAsia and Europe with the very blood.

Sickness broke out. It was not such as that first sicknessat La Navidad, but here were many more to lie ill. BesidesJuan Lepe, we now possessed three physicians. Theywere skillful, they labored hard, we all labored. Men diedof the malady, but no great number. But now among theidle of mind and soul and the factious arose the eternalmurmur. Not heaven but hell, these new lands! Not wealthand happy ease, but poverty and miserable toil! Not forevernew spectacle and greedy wonder, but tiresome river,forest and sea, tiresome blue heaven, tiresome delving andbuilding, tiresome rules, restrictions, commandments, yeasand nays! Parties arose, two main parties, and within eachlesser differings.